Courage of the Broken Hearts
by ladycordelia17
Summary: COMPLETED AT LAST! A powerful mage of darkness named Nephorius comes to the Nintendo universe to destroy the Smashers! Rated T for character death. Please refrain from the use of Fire Flowers.
1. Mario's Dream

_Hello again, readers! I've got a new story, and this one is probably going to be better than **Survivors' Accounts from the Wormhole Crisis**, though some of the events of that crisis will factor into what goes on here._

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the SSBM fighters, or characters from their home worlds; I own only the ideas of how they interact with one another._

**

* * *

Mario's Dream**

_It seemed like an ordinary walk in the moonlight to Mario, who was quite accustomed to walking through the Mushroom Kingdom at night, from all his quests. Casually as ever, Mario looked up at the sky above him, which was filled with twinkling stars in spite of the nearly-full moon that shone behind him._

_Something was odd, however. There was a star to the north that was usually one of the brightest in the night sky—but tonight it appeared to be fading out of existence!_

_The sight of the fading star alarmed Mario—it was never good when stars faded at night before the sun rose, but the fading of a bright star in particular was a very bad omen indeed. Before he could think, Mario sprinted off his path to the place below the fading star, hoping that it would not diminish completely before he reached the spot above which it disappeared._

_Over the top of a hill, Mario saw a great fountain and ran to it, hoping at least for some answer as to why the star faded from the sky. Just as the last light of the star went out, Mario reached the fountain. But this was no ordinary fountain: it was one that flowed with tears instead of ordinary water, and Mario could see what was unmistakably a shattered sword lying in the fountain basin. He had just extended a hand to retrieve the shards of broken metal when he noticed a bird perched on the edge of the fountain almost directly opposite the place where he himself stood. The fairly large bird that appeared dark gray in the moonlight must have been a bird of prey; it had a sharp curved beak and razorlike talons. While Mario seemed to look to the bird for answers, the bird hung its head for a moment as if it might add its own tears to the fountain if only it could before spreading its long wings to fly away…_

"Mario? Mario, wake up, it's nearly ten in the morning," came the voice of Mario's younger brother, Luigi, in the sleeping plumber's ears that woke him from his troubled dream.

As he sat up and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes, Mario was slightly disturbed at the tears that streaked his face from the outer corners of his eyes to his temples. Sensing his older brother's discomfort, Luigi could not help but ask, "Did you have a bad dream? Is that why you woke up with tears in your eyes?" When Mario told Luigi about his dream, the younger plumber brother replied, "Well, I guess the fountain of tears in your dream explains the tears in your eyes now, or maybe vice versa—but I really don't know how the fading star would lead to a fountain of tears, or why there was a bird and a broken sword in your dream."

It made no sense to Mario either. _Maybe Peach can figure it out, or maybe I need to go to another one of my fellow SSBM fighters for information,_ Mario thought with some uncertainty as Luigi led him to the kitchen for breakfast.


	2. The Argument

**A Matter of the Heart**

"Impossible!" Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom scoffed at the mere thought of what Princess Zelda of Hyrule, a friend and fellow SSBM fighter with whom she disagreed, was saying about a matter of the heart. "I couldn't break such a heart even if I wanted to—the heart of a bounty hunter is unbreakable.

"Peach, that's an awful thing to believe," Zelda protested. "The only reason that villains like Ganondorf and Bowser are evil is because they have no heart. No heart is unbreakable, you need to see that."

But Peach would not believe it without proof. "If you believe that the heart of a bounty hunter can indeed be broken, then why has neither Samus Aran nor Captain Falcon ever suffered from a broken heart? Even they aren't strong enough to hide that sort of an affliction from those around them—therefore I can only conclude that the heart of a bounty hunter is unbreakable."

"You imply that a bounty hunter by definition has no heart at all!" accused Zelda. "Why are you accusing two of our fellow SSBM fighters—two whom you've always held in high regard—of being heartless all of a sudden?"

"I accuse nobody of heartlessness," said Peach with a voice of somewhat forced calm. "I simply defy even the worst of evildoers to break the heart of a bounty hunter, for I believe all too strongly that it cannot be done."

Unbeknownst to the arguing princesses, there was a bounty hunter just within earshot of them who heard every word of their heated debate: fellow SSBM fighter Captain Falcon, an F-Zero pilot who just happened to be on his way from the Intergalactic Travelers' Center to an N-gate that would take him to the Battlefield stage where he would use the Fighting Wire Frames that frequented the stage as targets for fighting practice.

_That's unusual—Peach and Zelda usually agree about everything to do with matters of the heart, but I suppose they're bound to disagree sometimes,_ Captain Falcon thought for a fleeting moment. Little did he know that one of the princesses would unwittingly put her own view on the matter to the test.


	3. Pumpkin Picking Plight

_So far, Nephorius has planted in Mario's mind a dream of a fading star, a fountain of tears, a bird, and a shattered sword (who has ideas of what each symbol might mean?) Also, Peach and Zelda have been overheard arguing over a matter of the heart upon which they disagree. Which other Smashers will sense a grave disturbance?_**

* * *

Pumpkin Picking Plight**

Deep within the bright-autumn-leaved Ochre Woods of the Pokémon world, a merry group of five playfully tussled and picked ripe orange pumpkins. One of the five was native to this world: a bright yellow Electric Pokémon named Pikachu. The other four were children from a far land called Eagleland: a dark-haired boy in a striped T-shirt and red cap named Ness, a blond girl in a short pink school dress named Paula, a blond glasses-wearing boy named Jeff, and a boy in a karate suit named Poo.

"Look, my pumpkin is bigger than yours!" laughed Poo as he waddled ahead of Jeff, proudly clutching a pumpkin that was almost too large for him to carry.

"Are you asking for me to throw an ear of corn at you?" Jeff yelled back playfully as the two raced to a large mound of pumpkins where the children deposited their pickings.

Paula laughed as the two boys joked with each other while she tried to pull a pumpkin loose from its vines. At last she called for Pikachu to try and cut the stem with a burst of electricity so that she could place it on the pile.

Ness, meanwhile, had become separated from his friends and wandered away from the pumpkin patch, to a shallow stream that flowed through the woods. Here sat a lonely pumpkin the size of a basketball on the bank of the stream. When Ness picked up the pumpkin to carry it to the pile of pickings, however, something surprised him—he expected to feel the smooth outer surface of the pumpkin, but his fingers instead touched a place that had something carved into it.

This lonely pumpkin bore, carved into its shell, a symbol that looked like a simple star, such as one might hastily draw on paper, except that it had one line missing. The symbol itself appeared broken apart by the pumpkin shell's ripples. Ness recognized the symbol as that of the Bond of Salvation—a bond forged across realms of the Nintendo universe when one character saves the life of a foreigner and made stronger when the indebted one repays his or her debt, or severed when the indebted one fails to save his or her rescuer's life—a bond that all those who were good-hearted held sacred, whatever else they believed.

But Ness's blood ran cold at the fear of what the symbol, broken either incidentally or intentionally, likely signified: that someone who had saved a life fairly recently might be in danger. Since Ness had been one of four victims of wormholes in Nintendo's N-gate system from the infamous Wormhole Crisis of a few months ago, he had an idea of who the victim might be this time: Starfox crew commander Fox McCloud, who had rescued Ness from an ambush by fighter ships called Wolfens on Planet Venom of the Lylat System.

Deeply disturbed, Ness carried the pumpkin to the pile to show to his friends.

"_Pika?_" Pikachu questioned. _(**Translation:** What's that on the pumpkin?)_

"It's the symbol for the Bond of Salvation, only it's broken up," Ness answered to his friends' questioning looks as he sat down near the pumpkin patch.

Paula and Jeff looked just as worried as Ness was, but Poo finally said in a dismissive tone, "Maybe whoever carved it had just tried to carve a star but couldn't quite do it."

"How can you take it so lightly?" demanded Paula, shocked. "I think it means that somewhere in the Nintendo universe a bond of salvation will be severed. What about you, Ness?" As Ness and Paula were both masters of PSI psychic power, Paula very likely sensed Ness's apprehension.

"I think one of my fellow SSBM fighters might be in danger—should I tell any of them about this?" was Ness's only reply. At these words, Ness felt Pikachu bury itself in his side and embrace him, whether fearfully or protectively, neither the young boy nor the little yellow Pokémon knew.

Jeff pondered for a moment, then reasoned, "It couldn't hurt to tell a few SSBM fighters what you're afraid of, Ness, given that you're a psychic and have a good sense of danger lying ahead."

Slightly encouraged by both Jeff's advice and Pikachu's protective behavior, Ness resolved to tell the first fellow SSBM fighter that he thought would believe him upon his next visit to the Centropolis (the central hub of the Nintendo universe).

* * *

_A/N: If you have any idea of which Smasher will be the first to fall at Nephorius's hands, please feel free to voice your predictions._

_Once again, I must ask reviewers to please refrain from the use of Fire Flowers and similar items._


	4. Zelda Possessed!

**Zelda Possessed!**

In a wasteland part of Hyrule called the Desert Colossus, a green-tunic-clad young man named Link wandered in search of the famed Spirit Temple. At last he saw what appeared to be a wall far in the distance. Supposing it to be one of the outer walls of the Spirit Temple, Link hurried forward in excitement.

Upon coming closer to the wall, however, Link discovered that it did not look at all like a Spirit Temple wall. Instead the great wall bore twelve symbols (a mushroom, a spotted egg, the letters "DK," a Triforce, a jagged "S" in a circle, a Warp Star, an Earth, a running fox, a Poké Ball, a falcon with its wings spread, an eggplant, and a sword) all arranged in a circle around a thirteenth symbol: a circle with two lines through it that crossed near the edge. Link recognized the center symbol as the badge borne by all of the fighters in a series of battles called _Super Smash Bros. Melee_ (he himself being an SSBM fighter)—and as such, he knew the surrounding symbols to represent his fellow fighters and their home worlds.

But nothing could have prepared Link for the next shock he received: standing about ten yards away from the wall was his ladylove, Princess Zelda of Hyrule—and she appeared to be staring blankly at the SSBM symbol, speaking in an expressionless tone of voice, completely unaware of Link's presence.

"_Seven miles into the town a fighter realizes that she cannot go on…many wounds she bears upon her body from a battle gone ill…one final meeting will take place before the Bond of Salvation is severed…"_

"Zelda?" Link spoke her name questioningly, but Zelda seemed unable to hear him. Not a feature of her beautiful face altered its blank expression; there was not a trace of change in her voice as she spoke again:

"_All the ice will turn into deep ocean…the informers and spies will find themselves betrayed…one who learns the truth will never fly again…all across the universe threads will be broken like the hearts of those who fight…"_

"Zelda, snap out of it! Can't you even hear me?" Link yelled to Princess Zelda. He made it up to seize her by one shoulder and shake her until she came back to her senses—but when he touched her, Link found that Zelda's body was completely rigid, unmoving as if someone had petrified her, except for her lips moving with the dread words that fell from them.

Link was horrified to realize the truth: Zelda was not simply talking nonsense—she was possessed. What sort of evil spirit could exert such a hold on Zelda, Link had no idea, for he knew her to be practically invulnerable to possession by evil spirits.

Link had to do something, and fast. Without another word, he made his way to an N-gate in order to reach the Centropolis, where he would then go to the nearest Gamemaster's agent with the news of what happened.

* * *

When the Gamemaster had sent a small team of magi to exorcise the evil spirit that possessed Princess Zelda and Link had taken Zelda to Hyrule Castle to rest, Link returned to the Centropolis to go to the Weapons & Warfare shop—but there he came upon Ness, who was holding a pumpkin and looking highly agitated.

"Is there something you wanted to tell me, Ness?" asked Link, warily but gently.

Ness held up the pumpkin, showing a symbol carved into the shell. "My best friends and I were picking pumpkins in Ochre Woods with Pikachu when I found this. It's the mark for the Bond of Salvation, but it's broken up—I think someone--maybe Fox McCloud--isin danger, if the fact that I found this pumpkin means anything," he explained uncertainly.

"_One final meeting will take place before the Bond of Salvation is severed…"_ Link remembered the prediction that Zelda had made while possessed, and remembered what Mario had told him yesterday about a dream involving a fading star, a fountain of tears, a bird, and a shattered sword—were these incidents any indication of events to come?

_

* * *

Out in the deep reaches of darkness, Nephorius plotted how he was to draw the SSBM fighters into his evil plan and destroy them one by one. "First," thought he, "I should plant some wormhole devices to draw out that little brat Ness and his three best friends—I can use them as bait for Ness's fellow fighters, for so many of them would rally to the cause of any child whose life was in any danger…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It's brilliant!"__

* * *

A/N: So the four children from the Earthbound games are going to be kidnapped! Who will go to rescue them? Mario? Link? Samus Aran? Pikachu? Only by waiting anxiously and then reading my next chapter will you find out! Feel free to review--but keep in mind that flames will be deflected._


	5. The Plot Takes Shape

The Plot Takes Shape 

"I have all of the scans and measures that you asked for on the Wall of Symbols, but as far as I can tell, it's for all the universe just a great wall with SSBM fighters' symbols carved into it," bounty hunter Samus Aran reported to a Gamemaster's agent upon her return to the Intergalactic Travelers' Center, popularly known as the ITC, in the Centropolis. "I didn't find a broken-up Bond of Salvation symbol like the one that Ness found carved into a pumpkin, if that's what you're afraid of."

"Just because you don't believe in fate like Link does is no reason to disregard a sign like that, Samus," responded the agent in a somewhat annoyed tone. "Some of the things Zelda said while the evil spirit possessed her might be true, so you'll need to be helpful and assist us in the investigation if the Nintendo universe is to be safe."

Unseen behind her visor, Samus rolled her eyes in annoyance. The investigation was a distraction from her mission on Tallon IV—didn't these Gamemaster's agents have any respect for pre-existing missions that needed to be accomplished?

Suddenly there was a loud, insistent beeping from the agent's portable radio, and when the agent pressed a button, a voice issued a report: "The children Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo have been wormholed to an unknown location."

"Where were they when they tripped up the wormhole device that warped them?" asked Samus promptly. As she was a veteran SSBM fighter, as was Ness, she was immediately concerned for the fate of the four children whose lives may now be at stake.

"According to our information, Ness was sparring with Luigi on the Rainbow Cruise SSBM stage, but Paula, Jeff, and Poo were in Onett," responded the voice on the other end of the communication line when the Gamemaster's agent repeated Samus's query.

With this information, the agent told Samus, "We're going to need your help some more—you should return to Tallon IV and start searching for Ness and his three friends there. I'm going to go to Onett and see if I can locate the guilty wormhole device."

"Understood. And if I find the four children, of course, I'll keep them safe aboard my ship until I receive further orders," was Samus's ready reply before she returned to the landing bay in which she had parked her starship.

"Are you sure? Ness was wormholed straight out of the fight?" Peach asked in alarm as she and Mario listened to Luigi's account of a sparring match cut short.

"Sure beyond a shadow of a doubt," answered Luigi fearfully.

Mario was just as shocked as Peach was. "How are we going to find Ness and get him home?" he finally asked.

The trio thought for a moment, and then Peach ran upstairs to a higher floor of her castle. "I know just the way to find them!" she announced when she returned, holding a tracking device that looked like it had been purchased at the Centropolis. "Universal Locator—it'll help you find practically anything of importance: N-gates, enemies, important items, fellow SSBM fighters, you name it!" Peach explained to Mario and Luigi. Handing the Universal Locator over to Mario, Peach told him and Luigi, "You two should probably start a search in Toad Town. I'm going to go to the ITC and buy a couple more of those devices. Just search Toad Town for now, and I'll find you from there when I return."

"I've just found out some more bad news—Ness's three best friends Paula, Jeff, and Poo were also wormholed out of Onett, probably to the same location as Ness," Peach informed Mario and Luigi upon her return to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario and Luigi both looked aghast at what these ill tidings meant: now not one, but four children's lives were in jeopardy. The children would need to be found fast if their kidnapper was to be prevented from harming them. At last, Mario came up with a plan of action: "Why don't I search the east of the Mushroom Kingdom while Luigi searches the west?"

"Brilliant!" Luigi exclaimed, programming the Universal Locator that Peach had just handed to him. "But what will you do, Princess?"

"If I can't turn anything up at the Centropolis, I'm going to search elsewhere. I'll do well to disguise myself in order to visit some of the other parts of the Nintendo universe—but I'll certainly be wearing the silver SSBM fighter's badge pin that I bought recently. Ness will be able to identify me by it, but otherwise only another fellow SSBM fighter will be able to recognize me," Peach decided as a maddened stroke of courage went through her.

"Are you sure, Peach? You're likely to get yourself hurt," worried Mario.

Peach smiled. "I'm an SSBM fighter like you now, Mario, I think I can handle the task of rescuing Ness and his friends." With those words of reassurance, Peach hastened away.

About two hours of fruitless searching later, when it was about dusk in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario came upon a fountain—of which he was glad; he had been very thirsty. But just as he stooped low to take a drink from the fountain, he perceived a faint flicker of light across the surface.

Looking around, Mario could see no source of light that might have been reflected off the water's surface and flickered, so he made a move to take a drink again—again he saw the flicker of light, and this time it reminded him of a fading star.

_Like the fading star that led to a fountain of tears…_Something was wrong, Mario realized, something was very wrong indeed. Abandoning his role in the search for Ness and company, Mario sped his way to the nearest N-gate and emerged from the other side in the lobby of the Intergalactic Travelers' Center at the Centropolis.

Mario wasted no time in entering the communications booth at the ITC and sending a hologram to all of his fellow SSBM fighters among space travelers who frequented the ITC: "If you're not aware by now that four children named Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo have been wormholed and are possibly being held hostage in foreign territory, take notice that Princess Peach is attempting her own search for the kids. She's told me that she would be in disguise, but she's definitely wearing a _Super Smash Bros. Melee_ fighter's badge in order to identify herself to fellow fighters, including Ness. If you will, be on the lookout for Peach as well as the four _Earthbound_ kids."

Somewhat tired from searching, Mario leaned against the latched door of the communications booth for about five minutes, until he heard a familiar voice on the live-messaging system radio: "Fox McCloud to Mario, Fox McCloud to Mario, are you still there, Mario?" It was Fox, commander of the Starfox team and a prominent SSBM fighter.

"Yes, I'm still here," replied Mario, glad that someone had gotten the message.

"We got your tip-off about Princess Peach searching for Ness and company," explained Fox. "Just want you to know that we're giving our full attention to the search ourselves. If we find Peach before we find the kids, and she's in good fitness, we're going to ask her to join up with us, that sound okay to you?"

"And if she's injured, of course, we'll take her to the Central Hospital to be treated," interjected Fox's trusted sidekick, Falco Lombardi.

"That sounds good to me. In any case, I'll be waiting here at the ITC for further news of the Princess, okay?" responded Mario.

Both Fox's and Falco's voices sounded on their end, "Okay."

"Over and out, then," concluded Fox.

Somewhat relieved, Mario left the communications booth to sit down in the ITC lobby. But the enigmas of his dream, and Peach's seeming stroke of recklessness, nagged at him still.

_A/N: So finally Nephorius has put the first steps of his plot into action! Which Smasher will be first to fall at his hands? Just a hint: It won't be Fox, as Ness was afraid of, nor will it be Falco (authors seem to like killing him off first, for some reason)—and it certainly won't be Pikachu!_


	6. A Shattered Sword and a Fading Star

**A Shattered Sword and a Fading Star**

Deep within a secret base near a racetrack, the four imprisoned children looked around for guards outside the prison cell in which they were held before daring to speak to each other. "Do you think there's hope of anyone rescuing us?" asked Jeff nervously.

"There has to be—I'm an SSBM fighter, we'll have all the heroes looking for us," reasoned Ness. "But it looks like it may be a while before they find us."

"I hope it's really soon," moaned Poo.

"Shh!" warned Paula. "We don't want the guards to hear us!"

But the last that the children saw of any guards was one that ran up a corridor past the prison cell, apparently alerted to trouble on the opposite side of the base. Several tense minutes passed before the children saw anyone else—but the next person to appear was not a guard. Instead, a mysterious female figure, clothed in a suit of some dark purple reflective material, appeared and made a few attempts at breaking the code to unlock the children's prison cell before the door opened. "All of you come out, hurry!" commanded a clear voice from under a silver veil that covered all of the young woman's face save her wide blue eyes.

"Peach!" whispered Ness joyfully upon hearing the voice and noticing the medallion that fastened the young woman's purple cloak: she bore the SSBM fighters' emblem, which meant that she had infiltrated the base for the sole purpose of rescuing Ness and his three friends. "How did you know where to find us?"

"I didn't—but it's irrelevant now, we all need to get out fast," answered the disguised princess. "Follow me and stay close!"

Quickly and quietly, Princess Peach led the four children through many secret passages until the group reached the roof—and a Hoverboard that Peach had apparently used to reach the base.

"Oh, no, do we have far to go before we get to an N-gate?" asked Paula upon seeing the Hoverboard.

"We might," replied Peach. "Taking you children home through an N-gate near the racetrack will be too dangerous; we'll need to go to one that's farther away. We'll be much safer going to Port Town in search of an N-gate."

Without further ado, the princess and the children boarded the Hoverboard and made their way to Port Town. When they were within a few miles of the outskirts, however, trouble arose.

_

* * *

"I have those fools now, and the Bond of Salvation will be severed, for the first fighter to rescue a fellow bearer of the fighters' badge will be the first to fall!" said Nephorius triumphantly as, disguised as the king of evil Black Shadow and aboard a large shuttle full of henchmen disguised as Black Shadow's soldiers and the Red Canyon bandits (with some real soldiers and bandits onboard), he came upon Peach leading Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo to Port Town._

* * *

"We got company—Black Shadow's soldiers at six o'clock," reported Jeff fearfully as he looked behind the Hoverboard.

The other children all gasped. Sure enough, dozens of black-uniformed men on speeder bikes were visible on the horizon behind them, along with a looming black shuttle and a dark reddish-mauve machine that must have been an F-Zero racing vehicle.

"Here, Ness, take the controls," Peach ordered. "I'm going to try and hold Black Shadow's men off!" _Curses! Even if the miscreants don't recognize me, they know Ness is an SSBM fighter,_ she realized. To ensure the safety of the children, Peach would need to get them into Port Town and to the nearest N-gate fast.

As the young psychic boy obeyed the order given, the disguised princess pulled a blaster from her belt and started shooting at the black speeder bikes. She succeeded in hitting several black-clad men, and she even neatly disabled the dark red F-Zero with a well-aimed shot to its engines as it sped ahead, probably for an attempt at knocking the Hoverboard out of the air.

"Good shot—looks like you've taken out Samurai Goroh!" congratulated Ness, but Peach had to tell him to fly the Hoverboard lower and faster as it became a blaster-fire target for the looming black ship.

The small, speedy Hoverboard may have been able to dodge many blasts from both the speeder bikes and the large black shuttle, but it could not dodge them all. At last, when the Hoverboard was but a few yards from the town limits, a blast that hit the ground created an explosion that knocked the Hoverboard and all its riders into the base of a building.

The group of five escapees fought gallantly as the black-clad soldiers began landing their speeder bikes and attempting to rush in and seize the children. But the battle went ill: when the black ship landed, out charged more soldiers—and a contingent of Red Canyon space bandits thatBlack Shadowhad probably hired.

The princess brandished a Beam Sword only to become locked in combat with the katana-wielding bandit named Samurai Goroh whose vehicle, the Fire Stingray, she had disabled in the chase. Howthe Red Canyon bandit leadercould match blow-for-blow the princess's Beam Sword swings with his ordinary-looking katana no one had any time to wonder, so Peach fought with all her strength—until Goroh, infinitely the better swordsman, slipped past her guard and wounded her just enough to take her by surprise. Wanting revenge for the shot that blew out the engines of the Fire Stingray, the bandit made a vicious slash at the princess that cut her deeply in the side before being shouted at to come back to the black ship.

The order could only mean one thing: Black Shadow's soldiers had recaptured the children, and Princess Peach could never rescue them without help now.

Now Peach knew that she was too badly wounded to fight. The bruises and cuts from the Hoverboard crash, and the swordfight wounds, meant that she had to go to Nintendo's Central Hospital to be treated as soon as possible. She had to see her dear friend and lover, Mario, again, and she had to find additional help for Ness and his friends. Her purple-reflective-suit disguise was torn in places from the battle, and she had to hold a torn fistful of suit over the vicious katana-wound in her side in an attempt to control the bleeding.

Clambering to the damaged Hoverboard as she produced a tracking device that would find the nearest N-gate, Peach miraculously found that it could still convey her a few miles into Port Town. The nearest N-gate was approximately seven miles into the town, and the Hoverboard had little power left to take her there.

What power the Hoverboard had left was not enough. It gave out when it had taken the wounded princess just short of seven miles into Port Town: she still had a hundred yards to walk before reaching the spot marked by her N-gate locator. Her will to save Ness and his friends was not enough to see her to the N-gate: painfully making her way along a street, she reached what appeared to be a back alley before she collapsed there, realizing that she could not go on—her strength was leaving her, and she was surely going to die here.

But mere moments after Peach collapsed, she felt a strong pair of hands turn her body over so that she was face-up, and—

"Princess Peach!" exclaimed a male voice that sounded familiar despite the surprise in its tone—that of a bounty hunter and F-Zero pilot named Captain Falcon who would certainly have assisted Peach had the two crossed paths before. "Why are you here—and how did you get like this?" he interrogated, noticing that the princess's left hand held a blood-soaked fistful of fabric over a dangerous blade wound and pressing his own hand upon hers. He was unnerved to find the princess here, let alone to find her battle-scarred and dying.

The voice of the bounty hunter brought the princess back to her senses. Peach recognized Captain Falcon's crimson helmet bearing a gold falcon-shaped crest and knew that she would at least die with an ally at her side, and that there was still hope for the four captive children. "Ness and his three best friends…they were wormholed…held hostage in a secret base near the Lightning Loop Cross racetrack…" Peach began to explain in broken phrases. "I infiltrated the base and tried to take the children here to Port Town…"

"In search of an N-gate, naturally," remarked Captain Falcon, who had spotted Peach's dropped N-gate locator and activated the built-in distress signal (unbeknownst to the princess) to summon an Emergency Response Team from the Centropolis.

"But Black Shadow's men caught us on the outskirts," Peach went on, "we tried to fight—but they recaptured the children…and when I was wounded…"

"You knew you couldn't fight anymore, so you kept looking for an N-gate to get to the Central Hospital," the quick-witted bounty hunter finished. "Well, you've come to just the right place, we're very near an N-gate." In truth, the N-gate was just inside the entrance of Captain Falcon's base of operations, but he could not divulge this piece of information in case Peach survived.

But Peach's life was fading quickly. "It's too late, Captain Falcon…I'm…"

"Don't give up!" the bounty hunter told her, a clear note of urgency in his tone as he snatched her right hand in his, willing her to stay alive.

Feebly returning her fellow SSBM fighter's handclasp as the last of her strength failed her, Princess Peach made her last requests: "Get Ness and his friends safely home…tell—tell Mario I love him…"

And then Captain Falcon felt the princess's delicate hands go limp.

_

* * *

A/N: Peach is the first to fall at Nephorius's hands, but she certainly won't be the last!_

_What do you think so far? Review please (Fire Flower users will soon find themselves on the receiving end of Din's Fire or PK Fire)._


	7. Fountain of Tears

**Fountain of Tears**

_Where could Peach be by now? I really hope she hasn't encountered any trouble in her quest for Ness and his three friends, _Mario, a plumber from the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach's beloved, thought anxiously as he waited for her in the Intergalactic Travelers' Center, or ITC, at the center of the Nintendo universe. When Peach had told Mario of her intention to disguise herself and rescue the four _Earthbound_ children after they had been wormholed to an unknown part of the Nintendo universe, within two hoursMario attempted to inform all of the space travelers among the SSBM fighters that Peach was also in quest to save the boy Ness and his three friends Paula, Jeff, and Poo—identifiable under her disguise by a SSBM fighter's badge. As far as Mario knew, though, Starfox crew commander Fox McCloud was the only fellow SSBM fighter who received the tip-off.

Mario tried to divert himself from his worries for Princess Peach by reading some of the science magazines scattered throughout the ITC lobby, but he found them to be insufficient. Not that his worry was without foundation—only two days ago, Mario woke (with tears in his eyes, according to his brother, Luigi) from a dream in which he saw a fading star in the sky and ran toward the place above which it diminished only to reach a fountain of tears, with a large bird perched on its edge and a shattered sword lying in the fountain basin. He didn't know what the dream meant, but he feared ill fortune to befall someone that he cared about: probably Luigi, or probably Peach.

For nearly three hours Mario's anxiety increased painfully, so that he eventually took to pacing about near the N-gate nearest the doors leading outside to a street of shops. When at last he could no longer bear to wait, Mario ventured near the communications booth to attempt to make contact with fellow heroes among SSBM fighters again—but the sound of the lobby doors opening stopped him in his tracks.

Two fellow SSBM fighters from the land of Hyrule—a swordsman in a green tunic named Link and his ladylove, Princess Zelda—ran in through the doors. A sense of great urgency was clear in both: Link looked extremely wary, while Zelda seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Link! Zelda!" Mario exclaimed in shaken surprise. "You're not searching for the _Earthbound_ kids?"

"We're here—well, Zelda at least—is here probably for the same reason you are," Link panted, sheathing his sword.

Princess Zelda could not stop herself and blurted out in her alarm, "I sensed that Peach was in mortal danger, so Link and I came to…"

"It's too late."

Those three words fell like the knell of doom.

All three SSBM fighters turned to the N-gate to see the fellow fighter to whom the voice that spoke the words belonged: F-Zero pilot and bounty hunter Captain Falcon, carrying the limp body of a woman in his arms and flanked by a Gamemaster's agent and four members of an Emergency Response Team.

"It's too late to save Princess Peach," Captain Falcon repeated the words of bad news. "She's dead."

Mario was paralyzed with shock. _Princess Peach dead?_ No, it couldn't be—but there she was as she was laid down on a long table: the hood of her reflective dark-purple cloak (fastened with a SSBM fighter's badge) had fallen to reveal her golden hair tied back but somewhat disheveled, and her face was pale and empty of life. Her reflective purple suit appeared torn in several places, including one that revealed a dangerous-looking blade wound to the right side of her body, and a large area around that torn place was stained dark reddish-brown as if it was soaked in blood.

"She was killed in a battle?" Zelda finally managed to ask.

"Peach apparently found Ness and his friends being held hostage in a secret base near the Lightning Loop Cross racetrack. She tried to take the children via Hoverboard to Port Town, either believing that taking the long way to an N-gate would be safer than trying to use a nearer one or knowing that she was likely to receive assistance—or both," explained the Gamemaster's agent, "but Black Shadow's soldiers chased them down. In the ensuing battle on the outskirts of Port Town, the children got recaptured, and Peach was badly wounded and lost from the fray."

"She kept following an N-gate locator in an attempt to get to the Central Hospital," Captain Falcon continued with some difficulty, "but the nearest N-gate was seven miles into the town—too far for her to reach on a badly damaged Hoverboard. I myself was wandering in that part of Port Town, near the N-gate, and I turned around a corner just in time to see the Princess collapse. But at that point she was beyond my aid. She lived just long enough to tell me what happened to Ness and his three friends."

It didn't take long for grief over the loss of Princess Peach to overtake those in the gathering who cared for her—Link blinked back a few tears as he supported the weeping Princess Zelda in his arms, and Mario sank into the nearest chair, not even bothering to wipe the tears from his face as he sobbed uncontrollably.

Of the SSBM fighters gathered thus far, Captain Falcon alone shed no tears. "I have to find the four children—when Peach died I swore to get them safely home, and that's what I'm going to do," he told his grieving fellow fighters.

The Gamemaster's agent delivered an order to headquarters via a portable communicator: "Send two Assault Teams to assist Captain Falcon in the rescue of Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo." When the bounty hunter protested that he had to accomplish the rescue alone, the agent insisted, "With one rescue attempt already made, those who hold the children captive will have tightened their security. Highly capable though you are, you're sure to need some help."

Just before leaving the ITC through the lobby N-gate, though, Captain Falcon strode over to the chair where Mario sat crushed with grief. Placing a hand on the plumber's shoulder, he attempted to offer words of comfort: "If it comforts you at all, Mario, Princess Peach did ask me, in her last breath, to tell you that she loves you."

But these words had anything but a comforting effect, for Mario's sobs began anew, and once again tears rolled down his face.

Captain Falcon lingered a moment longer, but then he departed, perhaps not wanting to be affected anymore by the sorrowful displays by Mario, Link, and Princess Zelda.

Within the minutes that followed, more and more characters made their way to the Intergalactic Travelers' Center to find out what was going on; many had either sensed a disturbance or heard rumors that a SSBM fighter had been killed. With Mario incoherent from sobbing, Princess Zelda barely able to choke out an explanation, and Captain Falcon absent on a renewed search for Ness and his three friends, Link bore the burden of repeating explanations of what happened.

* * *

Meanwhile, onboard the black shuttle that bore the villain Nephorius and his henchmen (disguised as Black Shadow and his soldiers), Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo were locked in the brig. Each child's hands were bound together in the front with energy binders that delivered electrical shocks whenever struggled against. Nephorius put on the appearance of the king of evil Black Shadow and visited the brig to offer water and hard bread for the children to feed upon.

"It's poisoned—you want to kill us!" accused Poo, refusing to eat.

To this Nephorius only laughed. "No, no, you're worthless to me if you're dead, so I can't afford to kill you," said he with an evil smirk.

"Then let us go, we're just a bunch of kids!" Paula yelled at him.

The other children waited with bated breath for the blow to fall as the supposed Black Shadow approached Paula. But to their surprise, he did not strike at her. "On the contrary, little missy, you and your friends are far more significant than you think—especially this boy next to you." With these words, he seized Ness by the collar and pulled him to his feet—then he halted and appeared to reconsider as he released Ness and spoke to him thus: "Though I guess, for your sakes, I should hope the girl's right and you are just four insignificant kids—we wouldn't want to be responsible for the death of _another_ fellow SSBM fighter, now would we?"

Ness tried hard not to show his tears as he sank back into his corner, but it hurt unbearably to realize the truth: Princess Peach hadn't made it to an N-gate in time after being wounded in the battle on the outskirts of Port Town. Worse yet, she had almost certainly crossed the path of fellow SSBM fighter Captain Falcon just before she died—and he was not able to save her, only to hear her out about the failed effort to rescue the children. If, upon witnessing the Princess's death, Captain Falcon made his own rescue attempt, would he fall into Black Shadow's trap and be killed?

"If it's any comfort to you, Ness, you and your little friends aren't the only ones crying for Princess Peach—I'm sure by now from all those who are good in the Nintendo universe flows a great fountain of tears, in a figurative sense," remarked Nephorius mockingly before leaving the brig.

"Don't fret, Ness—what if some Gamemaster's agents found out about what happened to Peach and are coming to find us?" Paula managed to say once the children were alone again.

Jeff found this idea insupportable. "If they just found Peach hopelessly banged up, they wouldn't know how she got that way unless Mario knew about Peach's plan and told the agents," he responded with a heavy sigh. "And then they would never have any clue of where to find us unless there's another SSBM fighter who knew Peach tried to rescue us and couldn't do it."

"That's just what I'm afraid of!" Ness cried out before being overcome with sobbing. Because he was the only SSBM fighter among the children, he alone understood the likelihood of Black Shadow's prediction coming true.

"Ness is right," remarked Poo. "Black Shadow must be using us as bait, and if any other fighter tries to get us home, he'll probably wind up faring even worse than Peach did."

* * *

_A/N: Have you been paying attention to the symbols and signs? Tell me what you think (and even though he's being held captive at present, Ness can still hit you with PK Fire if you use Fire Flowers)._


	8. Swept Away in Suffering

**Swept Away in Suffering**

"Well, I guess we got to get over the top of that ridge before we can go, 'cause that's the only N-gate we're going to see for the next two-thousand feet," a young boy in a blue parka said to his twin sister, who was wearing a similarly-styled pink parka. The children's names were Popo and Nana, respectively, and they were the Ice Climbers of Icicle Mountain, a virtually inseparable duo on and off the mountain slopes.

"It's a good thing we're already pretty close, then, since we're low on supplies," Nana remarked in a somewhat remorseful tone. "Maybe we should've gone to the Centropolis at the last N-gate we passed."

Popo and Nana continued climbing their way up the steep ridge to the N-gate, stopping now and then to catch their breath.

"We made it!" Popo panted at last. "So where to—do we go to Onett and see if Ness wants to play, or do we go to the Mushroom Kingdom, since Princess Peach says we're always welcome at her castle?"

Nana had to think for a moment. "I say we should visit Peach; she's sure to offer us something to eat or maybe some hot chocolate to drink, and I'm really thirsty," was her reply, and with that, she strode to the N-gate and programmed it accordingly before she and her brother entered.

The designated destination N-gate was just a little way along a path leading to Princess Peach's castle. It must have been midnight in the Mushroom Kingdom; the night sky was cloudy as if threatening rain. Upon lowering the hoods of their parkas Popo and Nana were relieved to feel the cool breeze playing about their ears.

They reached the door to Peach's castle and knocked politely, hoping that there was at least a good Toad (a member of a race of mushroom creatures by that name) awake to answer the door.

But the Toadette (female Toad) who answered the door had red eyes, as if she had been crying. "Oh—Popo and Nana—you must've come to see the Princess—but I'm—afraid you never will," the Toadette stuttered, pulling at her pajamas nervously as if trying to pull herself together.

"Never?" Popo repeated, shocked. "Why—how?"

"Well—Mario came to see us—about three hours ago…" the Toadette stumbled over her words as she began to explain, "…he was crying something awful—he said the Princess—was badly hurt in a battle—and tried to get to an N-gate—but she—didn't make it!" Barely able to choke out these words, the little Toadette was soon overcome with sobbing.

Nana put her arm around the Toadette and waited a few long minutes until the Toadette's crying abated, and then she asked, "Where's Mario now—is he still here? Can we speak to him?"

"Mario's here, but—I'm surehe's cried himself to sleep by now, and we don't know where Luigi is—he must still be searching for Ness, who was wormholed," the Toadette answered with difficulty.

"What? Ness was wormholed?" responded Popo, dumbstruck.

"Yes—that's why Mario and Luigi and Peach went out looking for him, and I think I recall hearing that Ness's friends Paula, Jeff, and Poo were wormholed too," answered the Toadette. "Maybe you can find out more at the Centropolis, if you were going there."

After trying unsuccessfully to comfort the Toadette, Nana turned to Popo. "Let's go, and see if maybe anyone else knows something about what happened—who knows, maybe Ness and Paula and Jeff and Poo have been rescued by now," she offered hopefully.

* * *

"I'm afraid it's all true, what the little Toadette must have said," answered Princess Zelda of Hyrule when Popo and Nana met her upon entering the Centropolis at an N-gate and inquired after Princess Peach and the _Earthbound _children. "Peach found the children being held hostage and tried to lead them to safety, but they were all chased down by Black Shadow's soldiers, and there was a battle. Black Shadow's men recaptured Ness and his friends, and Peach was wounded in the battle," Zelda explained in something of a despairing tone, "and she tried to reach an N-gate to get to the Central Hospital—but she didn't have the strength; she died before an Emergency Response Team could get to her." 

Nana started in surprise at this news. "What? Peach is dead?" she repeated.

"No wonder the Toadette said Mario was crying his eyes out!" Popo realized.

"And I thought Peach might've been lying in the Central Hospital…" mumbled Nana unhelpfully as her eyes filled with tears.

"It's okay, Nana, I understand—I didn't want to believe it either, when she was brought into the ITC with all the evidence of having disguised herself to try and find Ness and his friends and been killed in a battle. You aren't the only one grieving; even Link shed a few tears—partly for Peach and partly because I had been crying harder than I had in a very long time. How Mario suffered more than anybody else there when we all got the bad news…how—oh, never mind…" Zelda trailed off, apparently fearful lest she start weeping again.

Wiping away a tear on his cheek, Popo finally asked, "What about Ness and his friends? Will they be okay?"

Zelda gave a soft but painful sigh as she went on, "One can only hope—Peach was fortunate enough to stumble into Captain Falcon's path just before she breathed her last. But by the time that happened it was too late; she lived just long enough to tell him what happened to the children."

"And Captain Falcon's looking for the kids where Peach left off?" reasoned Popo.

Zelda nodded. "Bound by the last request of a dying princess…" she tried to say, but she somehow faltered and couldn't form into words what she had intended to say next.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Nana, seeing the Hylian princess's weeping-reddened eyes well up and sensing the hesitation in her words.

"You and Popo wouldn't understand, Nana," Zelda replied with a feeling of abandonment apparent in her voice.

"Well, I guess all we can do is hope for the best," concluded Popo dejectedly before he and Nana parted ways with Princess Zelda and went to a café for something to eat before stocking up on supplies.

* * *

"_So the little Ice Climbers, too, grieve for the princess everybody so loved? Well, well, maybe drowning in the river of suffering will, in fact, ease their pain…" Nephorius began to muse as he slipped his way through the Centropolis and to Icicle Mountain to work his evil magic once again._

* * *

"Oh, no! What's happening down there?" Popo yelled in alarm as he pointed down below where he and Nana had just emerged from the N-gate on the ridge.

Nana jumped back in horror. Everywhere the Ice Climbers looked, a dark cloud surrounded the mountain below, and everywhere ice and snow melted into water as wisps of the thick black cloud touched it. The cloud seemed to be rising, melting ice in its path.

There was only one thing for the Ice Climbers to do: climb as fast as possible to higher ground. Both struggled with all their strength to cover as much distance as they could in as little time as possible.

But alas, Nephorius's ice-melting cloud was rising to claim the struggling Popo and Nana faster than they could climb to escape it. In a last-ditch attempt to out-climb the cloud of evil energy, Popo threw Nana up toward a ridge of bare rock that would hopefully give Nana good footing to pull Popo up behind her. Too late. Feeling the ice melt below his feet, Popo lost his footing and fell into the rushing water below, dragging Nana behind him by the rope that held them together.

Popo and Nana struggled to swim to safety as best they could for the pain that resulted from the icy water soaking through their parkas, weighing them down like suits of armor. It seemed there was no safe ground to which they could swim; Nephorius's cloud of evil energy blinded the hapless children to anything but the water that swept them away…until they both drowned and sank into the dark oblivion.


	9. An Unquiet Hour

**_Before I continue, I'd like to acknowledge my reviewers._**

**_Ri2 and x Flames of Ice x: So you, like some others who have voiced their opinions, agree with Zelda's views. I'm sure you understand, though, why Peach believed as she did--the only two bounty hunters whom Peach believes capable of any good are still well-noted forbeing tough, which is why she asserted her belief in the "unbreakable" heart of a bounty hunter in the first place. Trouble is, though, I run a serious risk of character-breakage if I portray any really tough Smasher as suffering a broken heart._**

**_Opus Triumphant: You seem to be a fan of mine and a great forum companion--thanks for your loyalty when it comes to sharing my views of canon purism. While you've definitely seen the foreshadowing, what do you think of the goings-on now that the plot has taken shape and things have been set to motion?_**

**_dragonsroar: As you must be able to see by now, sorry, but Nephorius is killing several of the Smashers, and certainly more will die at his hands before those who remain defeat him. I will tell you now, if you pay attention, there's a certain connection between the Super Smash Bros. games and the characters that survive vs. those that die. Can you find the connection?_**

**_bijoukaiba: I've really gotta commend you for paying attention to the symbolisms and other foreshadowing. You must have seen Peach's death, at least, coming a mile away. And of course she would, if not in Mario's presence already, have no choice but to ask whoever's with her to deliver her last I-love-you to Mario. (And rest assured, unlike in "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," Marth, Yoshi, and Capt. Falcon will all survive. Hopefully by now you know whose survival among them, in particular, is far too integral to the plot for me to kill him off.)_**

**_Black Light Princess: Glad you thought well of my story so far, and that you weren't miffed by the fact that Peach is "first to fall." I love her, too--or else I wouldn't rise to her defense on forums--but it's the means and circumstances that surround her death, as well as events before (since this story takes place post-Wormhole Crisis) that are necessary to push the story forward._**

**_Nintendo4ever: You must really like the Ice Climbers--sorry you feel as you do about their being "swept away in suffering," like the title of Chapter 8 says. Don't fret about Ness, though--his survival is too integral to the plot for him to die, so he and his _Earthbound_ friends will definitely survive._**

**

* * *

An Unquiet Hour**

Midnight in Hyrule found Princess Zelda entering a great fairy-fountain that lay just outside the gates of Hyrule Castle. She had come to this place in quest of answers.

_Oh, Farore, pray give me the answers I seek to questions that burden like lead upon my troubled mind,_ she silently prayed as she knelt at the water's edge, _that no more may be lost, that there may be hope for those who live on…_

As if in answer to Zelda's prayer, the waters of the fountain stilled until the surface became as smooth as a mirror. The water was perfectly clear for a moment before images appeared on the surface, some of them accompanied by voices that sounded in the Hylian princess's ears:

_Two parka-clad children falling into a dark river and sinking before they ever had the chance to swim to safety…_

_A cartoon-like two-dimensional figure of a man dissolving into nothingness…_

_A spaceship being destroyed with blaster fire and a voice that cried out, "Falco! No-o-o-o-o…"_

_A feline figure surrounded by a blue bubble, a blinding flash of light, and a small yellow creature left behind, its eyes full of tears…_

_A great beam of evil energy striking like a whip crack, then a young red-headed man falling prostrate in death with a low but sharp cry of pain as a blue-haired swordsman looked on…_

_A battleground after the dust of battle had lifted, with twelve fighters standing about, many of them exhausted, all in an attitude of great sadness that for some went beyond the power of words to express…_

With a blinding flash of green-and-violet light, Princess Zelda was thrown up onto her feet, staggering one step back—straight into the arms of Link, who had followed her not long after she started seeing visions in the water.

"What is it, Zelda? Have you seen anything?" asked Link warily.

"I prayed that no more of our fellow Smashers would be lost," replied Zelda shakily, "but I looked in the fountain and I saw more of them dying—Jigglypuff, Pichu, and Mewtwo…Mr. Game & Watch…Roy…Falco Lombardi…and the poor little Ice Climbers…"

Link started in alarm. "I had a vision in which Icicle Mountain melted into water and Popo and Nana drowned in it!" he exclaimed. "Did they drown in your vision too?"

"Yes…" whispered Zelda, breathless with shock. "I was probably the last Smasher either of them spoke to—they'd gone to the Mushroom Kingdom, where a Toadette apparently told them that Peach went looking for the _Earthbound _children and been hurt, never to make it back to an N-gate again. I told the twins that the Toadette had told the truth—they both cried a little, and then Popo asked, 'what about Ness and his friends?' and I said that one could only hope they'd be all right—but how could Popo and Nana understand…" Zelda faltered, blinking back tears that welled up in both eyes.

"Understand what? What wouldn't they understand?" Link asked, perturbed.

"I argued with Peach not long before the battle that took her life," Zelda confessed--

"_And will take more lives until all of you pathetic so-called fighters are gone!"_ rang out a savage voice as a shadowy figure rose from behind the fairy-fountain pool and took the shape of a scar-faced man in black robes who stood upon a floating platform made of iron and obsidian. Then the platform floated over the two Hylians' heads and to the fairy-fountain entrance.

"_I am Nephorius, the all-powerful Master of the Dark, and I come to destroy the Super Smash Bros. Melee fighters and the worlds that they call home!"_ declared Nephorius as he formed a dagger in one hand from out of nowhere and threw it in one swift motion.

"NO!" screamed Link as he heard Zelda give a gasp of pain and fear—Nephorius's dagger had stabbed her directly in the heart. She fell backward into the fairy-fountain pool with a sickening splash and moved no more.

"_So long, loverboy,"_ sneered Nephorius, who vanished without a trace.

* * *

Still aboard Black Shadow's shuttle, Ness started awake in alarm and then cried out in pain as his energy binders shocked him. 

"What's the matter—little boy have a nightmare?" sneered a soldier outside the brig who looked in upon hearing Ness's outburst.

"No," Ness lied resentfully.

Ignoring the brief distraction of Jeff murmuring in his sleep, the soldier jeered at Ness, "Best get some more sleep—who knows, maybe someone will rescue you in your dream, because it certainly ain't happening in real life!"

Ness pretended to be trying to get back to sleep for several minutes after the soldier disappeared, but he couldn't help but let out many sighs of despair as he fought the urge to weep again. Not without reason, either—he could sense that Popo and Nana, and now Princess Zelda, were dead now.


	10. Discovery

**Discovery **

Falco Lombardi announced to the Starfox team via radio as they flew through the Lylat System, "I'm picking something up on my radar—it's got a SSBM fighter's icon attached to it, which might mean that the kids were taken to Sauria. Mind if I land on the planet and investigate?"

"Go ahead and do that, Falco, but use caution," warned Fox McCloud, the commander of the Starfox team.

With that, Falco landed his Arwing on the surface of Sauria as close as he could get to the spot marked on his radar. The closest he could land safely was still a mile and a half from the marked location, but Falco managed to make his way easily enough.

Falco discovered, however, that the location marked on his Arwing's radar with the SSBM logo was not so marked because the _Earthbound_ children had been taken there. Rather, it was marked apparently for some unknown reason, because all that Falco found was a round flat stone that measured probably eighteen inches across, inscribed with some strange message:

_That which was created to be of great power is given up, a sacrifice made to restore those lives which are lost, but here is what must be done: _

_When death on swift and evil wing_

_Come to fighters renowned that live,_

_Defeat Nephorius, that vile thing—_

_He that end untimely doth give._

_And in that bleakness where grief does thrive_

_It need not flow in fountain water:_

_A single tear will life revive_

_When first to fall is proven faltered._

Falco knew not what this strange poem meant, but as the stone (which was surprisingly light for its size) was marked on the Arwing radar as important to the SSBM fighters, he thought it best to carry the stone back to his Arwing.

But the enigmas of the poem nagged at him, so he asked the Starfox crew as soon as he was in space again, "Have we received any news from the ITC since the report that Princess Peach found Ness and company but lost them when she was chased down and killed in a battle?"

"Not from the ITC, but we did get a message from Samus Aran when you were on Sauria," answered Krystal, a telepath and Fox's best girl.

"There've been more SSBM fighters dying," said Fox heavily. "The little Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch, Princess Zelda, and even Mewtwo—something must connect their deaths."

"Well, in that case have the Gamemaster's agents found any of the deaths to be connected to a killer named Nephorius? I found a stone inscribed with a poem that referred to such a killer…" Falco began, but trailed off.

Answered a young recruit named Slippy Toad, "Yes, there was one! Nephorius is a mage of some sort, and according to Samus, Link mentioned Nephorius as coming to kill SSBM fighters—that must be why Nephorius slaughtered Zelda in front of Link!"

"And the agents do suspect a magic user to be behind the destruction of Icicle Mountain and Flat Zone and the subsequent deaths of Popo and Nana and Mr. Game & Watch, respectively," remarked Krystal.

* * *

"_Curses! The meddling fleabag must have sacrificed himself to give the fighters what they need to revive their fellows—but no matter, perhaps I can still prevent it…" realized Nephorius to himself. With that, he made his way to nowhere other than the Lylat System._

* * *

"And what about Peach? Did this Nephorius fellow kill her, or at least have a hand in bringing her death about…" Falco tried to ask, but was cut off in the worst of ways.

For out of absolutely nowhere came a powerful laser blast—and a violent explosion, after which Falco's Arwing vanished completely from the radar of the Great Fox, the flagship of the Starfox team.

"_Falco! No-o-o-o-o…_" screamed Slippy.

"Oh, Fox, tell me you saw that…" moaned Krystal in agony.

Fox felt a pricking in his eyes as he answered, "I did see it, Krystal, I did see it. Where the heck did that blast come from?"

"There aren't any enemy ships on our sensors," complained a senior pilot named Peppy Hare. "We haven't a way to trace it—all that Krystal managed to tractor back to the Great Fox was what Falco must have been talking about when he said 'a stone inscribed with a poem,'"

"Fox, Slippy, let's all regroup on the Great Fox for now and report this to the Gamemaster," suggested Krystal.

Fox's and Slippy's Arwings docked in the Great Fox docking bay, and already Fox hastily tried to dry his eyes as he stepped out of his Arwing.

"If it comforts you at all, Fox, the poem-on-a-stone that Falco found spoke of hope that those who die will be revived," Krystal tried to say when she was able to recite the poem to the Starfox team.

But after the few tears that he shed in the aftermath of Falco's death, Fox's grief seemed to be beyond tears. "I really hope he's the last one to die at Nephorius's hands," was all that he managed to say.


	11. Search and Rescue

**_It seems I have some more reviewers to acknowledge:_**

**_falcored: I think in order to fully understand all the goings-on in my stories one must play, or at least know a thing or two about, other games that the Smashers feature in individually. And aside from the anonymous authorities at Nintendo's "Centropolis," a central hub that I made up, Nephorius is really the only original character that I incorporate into this particular story._**

**_crystalicios: Glad to hear you've read "Survivors' Accounts from the Wormhole Crisis," because this is the primary chapter I'm talking about that you would not understand without reading "Survivors' Accounts." If you found that it explained a lot before this point, you'll certainly be glad you've read it now._**

**_So without further ado..._**

**Search and Rescue**

While Fox McCloud and Team Starfox grieved over the loss of Falco Lombardi, in quite a different galaxy, another SSBM fighter sought out one of his fellows and three others imperiled now in the enemy's grasp. This man was Captain Falcon, a renowned bounty hunter and F-Zero pilot in addition to being a SSBM fighter, and he was now on a search-and-rescue mission for the psychic boy Ness and three friends of Ness's named Paula, Jeff, and Poo.

Captain Falcon might have had many reasons for embarking to rescue these four children, but those of us who know the truth up to this point could narrow them down to the three most plausible reasons. For one thing, he was a SSBM fighter, as was Ness, and any such fighter with a sense of honor would consider it his duty to help fellow fighters in need and any others who may be in that same need. Secondly, even if he had not been a SSBM fighter, Falcon's sense of honor would still dictate that if children were in danger as Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo were, he must not stand by and leave those children to their fate. But probably a more pressing reason than mere SSBM fighter's honor was the last request of a dying princess.

In the infamous Wormhole Crisis of less than five months ago, Captain Falcon had been wormholed straight out of an F-Zero race and to the Mushroom Kingdom, where travel-speed regulations caused any vehicle traveling faster than maximum allowed speed to crash upon entry, via wormhole or otherwise. Falcon's crash not only totaled his racing machine; it caused him broken bones and grievous burn injuries that landed him in the critical care unit of Nintendo's Central Hospital—which, Centropolis doctors said, Falcon would not have even survived if not for the immediate attentions of the Mushroom Kingdom's own Princess Peach, as she had treated his wounds to the best of her ability until an Emergency Response Team arrived on the scene.

But when Falcon stepped out of his base of operations in Port Town just in time to see an injured woman collapse into a heap at the entrance to the back alley, he realized that the woman was, in fact, the very Princess Peach to whom he owed his life—and by that time it was already too late to save her. She had several injuries under the reflective purple suit that she had worn hopefully to resist blaster fire—including a long, angry blade wound to her right side that must have been the primary cause for the loss of blood that prostrated her strength until her collapse. Falcon spotted that Peach had been carrying an Intergalactic Travelers' Center-issue tracking device (apparently used to look for an N-gate), and that she must not have known the device to have an emergency transmitter built into it—which he himself promptly activated to summon an Emergency Response Team from the Centropolis. Alas, however—Peach was too far gone; she died before the Emergency Response Team arrived.

Peach did, however, manage to tell her fellow SSBM fighter this much: the children Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo were wormholed and held hostage; Peach had found them and tried to get them to Port Town, via Hoverboard, in search of an N-gate (either the princess had the idea that she could deliver the children to safety by catching the enemy off-guard and taking the long way to an N-gate, or she knew that she could call on Captain Falcon for help in the unlikely event that she should cross his path—or both). The king of evil Black Shadow and his soldiers, however, chased the escapees down until they reached the outskirts of Port Town—in the battle that ensued there, Black Shadow's soldiers succeeded in recapturing the children, and Peach, too badly wounded to continue fighting, was forced to attempt to make her way to an N-gate so that she could get to the Central Hospital to be treated. But she didn't have the strength to make it; she lived just long enough after her collapse to tell Falcon about the fate of Ness and company, and to ask him to rescue the children in her stead. If only the princess had been able to take a few more steps—if only Falcon had stepped outside a moment sooner, he might have been able to save Peach's life and renew the Bond of Salvation forged in the Wormhole Crisis…

But no, Falcon could not lament the loss of the princess. He remembered overhearing an argument that Princess Peach had had with another fellow SSBM fighter, Princess Zelda of Hyrule, merely two days before the fateful battle—_"The heart of a bounty hunter is unbreakable,"_ Peach had vehemently asserted. And true enough, Captain Falcon was a bounty hunter—he was determined to prove Peach right by showing the unbreakable heart that she believed him to possess. For while it may be only fitting for Peach's dear beloved, a plumber named Mario, to weep uncontrollably soon after receiving the news of her death; while it was acceptable for Princess Zelda to cry about the loss of a dear friend, those same tears from Falcon would be a grave dishonor to the princess who gave up her life in an attempt to rescue the four _Earthbound_ children.

Thus a dark hour found the intrepid bounty hunter onboard his flagship, the Falcon Flyer (with one Assault Team from the Centropolis stowed aboard and another accompanying him in cloaked fighter ships), searching for the whereabouts of Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo.

"Our intelligence reports indicate a number of Black Shadow's soldiers, as well as a contingent of Red Canyon bandits, entering Eastern Mute Spaceport via a black shuttle identified as belonging to Black Shadow and his soldiers," explained a Gamemaster's agent traveling with the Assault Team stowed aboard the Falcon Flyer. "Are we to attempt to enter the spaceport undetected and sneak onboard the shuttle to rescue the children when it lands?"

"I suppose that's a safer plan than attempting to board the shuttle in space—but on what grounds are you suggesting that the Red Canyon bandits are involved in this?" interrogated Captain Falcon suspiciously.

"A report from the forensics lab indicated that the blade wound that killed Princess Peach was, in fact, made by a katana—but from there arises another unforeseen complication," the agent answered in explanation, ignoring Falcon's curse at the mention of a katana being the killer's weapon.

At the mention of another complication, however, Falcon's eyes narrowed unseen behind his visor. "Complication of what nature?" was his wary response.

"Investigators at the scene of the battle have found a Beam Sword dropped at an area of ground splattered with what tests confirm to be the Princess's blood, and marks on her right glove indicate she was holding that very weapon and fighting with it; presumably she dropped the sword in the initial pain of being slashed with a katana…"

"But the blade of a Beam Sword is pure energy; it should have sliced straight through any attackers and their weapons," Falcon contradicted, "unless Peach's killer attacked her from behind."

"That's where we come to the complication," stated the agent. "Analysis of the wound confirmed that the attacker made his fatal slash from the front—which would mean that Peach had traded blows with this particular attacker for some unknown length of time before her enemy landed the blow."

Falcon muttered under his breath, "Not long, it isn't likely; she's not very good with a sword—but what are you suggesting, if Peach was fighting with a Beam Sword?" he interrogated.

"What the Gamemaster is beginning to believe is that a certain mage of darkness named Nephorius is behind the death of Princess Peach, as well as those of several other SSBM fighters that have been killed over the past several hours. A poem inscribed on a stone that Falco Lombardi found on Planet Sauria before his Arwing was blasted apart makes mention of Nephorius as a killer of 'fighters renowned…'"

"Not now, maybe later—we're approaching Mute City, and I need to be focused," Falcon interrupted, in proof whereof fixing his face into the determined expression that he usually reserved for either racing in Grand Prix events or chasing down dangerous criminals. He activated the Falcon Flyer's cloaking device and radar scramblers to avoid detection as he and the two Assault Teams made their way to the Eastern Mute Spaceport, where the enemy kept the _Earthbound_ children hostage aboard Black Shadow's shuttle.

Falcon landed his own flagship in a smaller landing bay that was more obscure than most of the others, but was unfortunately far enough away to make bringing back the children undetected more difficult. Luckily, however, he brought along several SSBM-issue Cloaking Devices to further reduce the risk that either he or any of the children would be seen.

It took all of Falcon's skill and agility to make his way through the spaceport unseen by Black Shadow's forces and the Red Canyon bandits; he was determined not to use any Cloaking Devices until he also had to shield Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo from prying eyes.

Finally the Universal Locator that Captain Falcon had been carrying (the same one that Princess Peach had dropped when she collapsed in Port Town) revealed the _Earthbound_ children to be exactly where he suspected the brig of the shuttle to be. _That was easy,_ Falcon couldn't help but think sardonically. _Now comes the hard part._

There was a cargo-hold door to the outside of the ship that could only be opened from the outside and had several bolted locks to disable. Falcon looked warily around from time to time as he did this, prepared to hide if he spotted one of Black Shadow's soldiers, but at last he disabled the last lock and found the four children on the other side.

"I can't believe it! It's Captain Falcon here to get us out!" Ness whispered joyfully, now freed of his energy binders (as Jeff had eventually learned how to release himself from them, freed Ness and Paula, and was just now trying to release Poo).

"Here, let me unlock that last set of energy binders, I can do it faster," Falcon ordered, releasing Poo from the binding device. "Now we haven't much time, so take a Cloaking Device and follow me!"

The children obeyed, Paula, Jeff, and Poo having learned from Ness how to operate Cloaking Devices, as Falcon led them through the spaceport as quickly and quietly as possible.

Within just thirty yards of the Falcon Flyer and safety, however, Jeff let out a cry of pain as a blaster bolt grazed his ankle and he fell.

"Oh, no! They've spotted us!" Paula burst out in alarm as she ran to Jeff, while Ness and Poo broke into a run to catch up to Captain Falcon. The bounty hunter didn't have to call on the Assault Team stowed aboard his flagship for assistance; the Gamemaster's agent had heard Jeff's outcry and rallied the Assault Team to begin shooting at Black Shadow's soldiers and the Red Canyon bandits as they brandished their weapons, giving the good captain just enough cover to hastily usher the children onto the Falcon Flyer.

As that ship left the spaceport with all speed under escort of the second Assault Team, with members of the first quickly boarding a few of the fighter ships that entered the spaceport to pick them up, it was not until everyone involved was back at the safety of the Intergalactic Travelers' Center that anyone dared to let their guard down.

"I saw Peach get hurt really bad when she tried to rescue us, just before those creeps tied me up in the energy binders—is it true, what they said, that she didn't make it?" Ness ventured to ask Captain Falcon some five minutes after the landing.

"I wish it wasn't true as much as you do, Ness, but I'm afraid the Princess did die before she could make it to the nearest N-gate," Falcon told Ness. "When she stumbled into my path in her last moments, she lived just long enough to tell me what happened to you and your friends, and asked me to rescue you."

Ness let out a sigh of despair. "I was so worried you'd be killed too…you shouldn't have risked your life for me…"

Placing a hand on the boy's shoulder for a moment, Falcon told him still more gravely, "Some things are more important than saving one's own skin, I hope you understand this."


	12. Rallying the Survivors

**_Let me take a moment, before I proceed, to acknowledge another reviewer:_**

**_Shadow Minamoto: So far you're the only reviewer to whom I've confided "the one thing needful" (well, actually two) to revive the dead Smashers, even though I'm sure I've given another, crystalicios, some idea of what must happen before the Smashers are reunited. (And that's probably because you asked why Mewtwo died. Well, essentially, he went to the netherworld to hopefully bring the rest of the dead Smashers back from it.)_**

**_But enough about that. Without further ado..._**

**Rallying the Survivors**

"Set a course for the N-gate just before Venom," Fox McCloud commanded to the Great Fox's autopilot system, ROB, explaining to the Starfox team, "I need to go to the ITC and summon all the Smashers Nephorius hasn't killed yet. They need to know what Falco discovered, if they're not at the Centropolis already."

Within ten minutes the Great Fox was in the Intergalactic Travelers' Center. Fox was able to exit his flagship—and was immensely relieved to recognize the ship in the next landing bay as the Falcon Flyer. Below that ship stood Captain Falcon, flanked by a Gamemaster's agent and an Assault Team. But even that relief was small compared to seeing Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo nearby and mercifully safe—very clearly, Captain Falcon had braved all in order to rescue the four _Earthbound_ children.

Ness looked agitated as he ran to Fox. "What happened? I heard the agent say something about Falco being blown up after he made an important discovery…" Ness began, but he stumbled over his words.

Fox set down the stone inscribed with the poem. "Falco did discover something that could prove very important," he answered. "We need to gather up as many survivors as we can—from what I know, Nephorius is on the move and we need to act fast," he explained to Ness, picking up the stone again to carry it to the lobby and set it down on a table there.

Ordering the Assault Team to stay with Paula, Jeff, and Poo to protect them, Captain Falcon followed Fox and Ness to the lobby. "I take it that what's carved on that stone is what Falco Lombardi discovered, that might have led to his being killed?" he questioned. Following the Smashers' lead, the Gamemaster's agent delivered an order to headquarters that all other surviving Smashers must be summoned to the Intergalactic Travelers' Center.

It took nearly half an hour for the Smashers to answer the summons, and when they were all gathered in the lobby, there were fewer among them than expected: only Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Kirby, Samus Aran, Marth, Roy, and Pikachu could make their way there. The rest, it was reported, were dead by means as various as they themselves were.

And a few of those gathered bore signs that they had been grieving for lost loved ones: Pikachu's red cheeks were stained with tears, and Link's eyes were almost as weeping-reddened as Mario's.

"So few survivors?" asked Ness, highly dismayed.

"I hope you all have an idea of why we were all summoned to gather here," Fox announced to the gathered Smashers. "Many of you, including myself, have lost close friends and loved ones. A few of you have lost enemies, as well. With each death that has occurred, I'm sure that you've wondered, 'who did this?' Read this inscription, and you will know the name of the killer."

Link stepped forward and proceeded to read aloud to fellow SSBM fighters:

_"That which was created to be of great power is given up, a sacrifice made to restore those lives which are lost, but here is what must be done: _

_When death on swift and evil wing_

_Come to fighters renowned that live,_

_Defeat Nephorius, that vile thing—_

_He that end untimely doth give._

_And in that bleakness where grief does thrive_

_It need not flow in fountain water:_

_A single tear will life revive_

_When first to fall is proven faltered."_

"But then Mewtwo didn't actually die at the hands of this 'Nephorius' villain…he sacrificed himself to give us this knowledge…" remarked Ness, who had sensed Mewtwo's death earlier and understood the part of the inscription before the poem.

"Then Mewtwo went to the netherworld, as it were, to try and bring his fellow Smashers who died back to life—because this poem looks like a spell to revive the dead," concluded Marth of Altea. "We need to find Nephorius and defeat him, and then one of us sheds a tear, and then our fellow fighters will be revived."

Mario and Luigi both looked dismayed at this task. "But that's the problem—how do we find Nephorius and defeat him?" asked Mario. Luigi merely shrugged.

"_Pika…"_ said Pikachu unhelpfully.

"It's not going to work," announced Samus Aran irritably. "Even when we do defeat Nephorius—_'A single tear will life revive / When first to fall is proven faltered,'—_it's no use; Princess Peach was the first to die, and she was already 'proven faltered.'"

Mario was angry at this slight against Peach. "How is that?" he demanded to know of Samus.

"Think about it, Mario, just for a moment," demanded Samus in an equally angry tone. "Gallivanting after a group of children who got wormholed—alone—as unprotected as she was on that Hoverboard—fighting enemies too strong for her—Peach couldn't have possibly realized the risks involved; it's no wonder she failed to rescue the kids."

"You can't accuse her of not trying—Peach did everything she could for me and my friends! Don't you dare talk about her like that after all she did!" cried out Ness hotly, struggling against Roy's restraining hold. Out the corner of one eye, Ness saw Mario looking equally ready to pummel Samus, similarly restrained by Luigi.

Link let out a groan. "It's not worth you three getting into a fight here in the ITC," he told Mario, Samus, and Ness. "In any case, I don't think that it's on that point that Peach was wrong."

"Besides which, if all it took to revive the dead was one tear, no one else would have died," remarked Captain Falcon with a pointed look at Mario from under his visor. Mario seemed embarrassed to have made such a cake of himself as he did by sobbing uncontrollably in the Intergalactic Travelers' Center upon receiving the news of Peach's death; he blushed as red as his monogrammed hat at Falcon's words.

"_When first to fall is proven faltered…_' But what could Princess Peach be wrong about, if a single tear would prove her wrong?" wondered Roy aloud. Yoshi muttered something inarticulate, and Donkey Kong scratched his head.

Samus clicked her tongue impatiently. "I tell you, it's not going to work," she told her fellow Smashers again.

"_And you, Samus Aran, would be right on that score!" _called out a booming voice as the ground shook beneath the Smashers' feet.


	13. Battle for the Nintendo Universe

**Battle for the Nintendo Universe**

Without warning, the Smashers were all warped to the Final Destination stage. Floating above them was the same scar-faced man in black robes that had appeared to Link and Princess Zelda at the fairy-fountain in Hyrule shortly before killing Zelda.

"Nephorius…" breathed Link in anger.

"_That's right, you lovelorn fool, I was the one to dispatch a few of your fellow so-called Smashers," _laughed Nephorius triumphantly. _"And what easy pickings they were, especially the prissy princesses—Zelda no more than target practice for me; Peach laid low by a little **sting**…"_

At these words, Mario spat on the ground exactly where Nephorius would have been had he been standing on the stage instead of floating. Link resisted the urge to fit an arrow to his bow with great difficulty; Kirby puffed up indignantly, as did Pikachu.

"_No point in getting angry over the deaths of your loved ones and friends; in fact, I think you all should be thanking me in advance for sending you to meet them—HAAAA!" _called out Nephorius suddenly, cutting off his jibe.

Roy of Phaerae let out a low but sharp cry of pain as he fell prostrate in death—Nephorius had released a great beam of evil energy that killed the young redheaded swordsman on the spot as he drew his Sword of Seals. The sword dropped from Roy's hand and fell to the stage with a sickening clatter that reminded Link forcibly of Princess Zelda's death at the Hylian fairy-fountain and for Mario brought to mind the shattered-sword part of the dreadful prophecy that came to him in a dream. Samus Aran alone did not appear to react: Donkey Kong appeared dumbstruck; Yoshi, Kirby, and Pikachu all jumped back in alarm; Luigi, Fox, and Marth each let out a barely-audible gasp. Ness flinched and cried out in fear, and Captain Falcon, with his hand on Ness's shoulder, struggled to remain still as he felt the violent tremor through to his own heart.

But the Sword of Seals remained intact.

"_So Mario, you're even more of a lovelorn fool than your fellow Smasher Link here,"_ Nephorius sneered, _"that you would fight to the death for your beloved Princess Peach? Well, of course she's dead now, but you'll be fighting to the death for her and all the others who died anyway—and taking ALL of your surviving fellow Smashers with you!" _were Nephorius's savage words before he descended from his floating platform and formed a large fireball in one hand to throw.

Instantly Captain Falcon shoved Ness to the ground as the fireball narrowly missed them both and eventually landed just short of Mario's feet. To this affront, Marth and Link drew their swords at once, and Fox likewise readied his blaster. Samus fired a charged energy beam at Nephorius, and the battle began.

Each of the surviving Smashers fought with everything he or she had: Mario and Luigi with their own fireballs, Yoshi and Kirby doing all they could to throw Nephorius's attacks back at him, Donkey Kong with powerful pummeling attacks, Pikachu with its electricity, Ness with his psychic powers, Link and Marth with their swords, and the space travelers with every attack in their arsenals. It was twelve against one, but Nephorius had no intention of losing his ground: no sooner did Link or Marth rush in to carve the enemy to ribbons than Nephorius used spells to throw them back; it seemed that Samus was doing more dodging than shooting, able to fire power-beams or missiles only when Nephorius turned his attention to Yoshi, Kirby, or Pikachu, the latter three able to score "diversion hits" at irregular intervals.

After a particularly narrow escape from an energy beam like a whip crack, however, Mario caught sight of the Sword of Seals still lying near Roy's body. Somehow knowing that he might, at least, stand a better chance against Nephorius with a fellow Smasher's weapon to wield, he took up the sword and returned to the fray. And not a moment too soon—Nephorius's energy-whip had just wound itself around Luigi's left ankle, and the evil sorcerer was now using the whip to drag Luigi over the stage.

With an impressive stroke for one unaccustomed to using a sword, Mario cut his brother free of the whip in one swift motion. Mario swung again—and this time managed to deal Nephorius a cut on the arm that spattered the wizard's sleeve with blood as black as tar.

Just when Nephorius knocked Mario back with an energy beam that rattled the entire stage like a sonic boom, Pikachu got a hold on the sonic-boom-tossed sword. It was then that Donkey Kong took it into his head to throw the sword-wielding Pikachu at Nephorius and do damage that way—a plan that succeeded, very nearly cutting Nephorius's leg off.

The wizard cast a spell that threw Pikachu across the stage, depriving it of the Sword of Seals—but an airborne Kirby inhaled the sword and quickly spat it out at Nephorius, grazing his shoulder and impaling the ground with the sword. From there, as the enemy's attentions were turned upon Mario again, Samus wrenched the Sword of Seals from the stage floor and swung, giving Nephorius a slash across one ear. Then Yoshi snatched the sword with his tongue and swung with his mouth and head, slashing Nephorius's other ear.

Nephorius, apparently immune to the pain in his ears, dealt Yoshi a punch on the nose that knocked the Sword of Seals out of his mouth and across the stage again, narrowly missing Link. The Hylian swordsman seized his chance and grabbed the Sword of Seals, cutting Nephorius across the back with a spinning attack and then passing the sword to Luigi, who attempted to finish Donkey Kong and Pikachu's job of cutting the wizard's leg off but merely grazed the leg above the main wound.

With another whip-crack attack, Nephorius knocked the Sword of Seals out of Luigi's hands—but Captain Falcon caught it perfectly and instantly made a powerful thrust attack, dealing Nephorius a wound to the left side. When Nephorius took a moment too long to recover from this blow, Ness, the next fighter to take hold of the sword, wounded the sorcerer on the right side.

"_That'll teach you to play with a sword, you little brat!"_ roared Nephorius in a fury, delivering a hard punch to Ness's forehead that knocked the boy almost over the edge of the stage. But Fox saw his opportunity, when Captain Falcon ran after Ness to help him, to seize the Sword of Seals and make a powerful swing—this time succeeding in deeply slashing the sorcerer's previously uninjured leg, effectively crippling Nephorius by knocking him down and rendering him unable to stand.

"That's for Falco!" Fox shouted at Nephorius, then to Marth as he tossed the Sword of Seals to the blue-haired swordsman, "Finish him off!"

Marth obeyed, slashing Nephorius repeatedly with his own sword, named Falchion, and his late companion's Sword of Seals—finally ending the battle with a powerful stab to Nephorius's heart with the Sword of Seals. At last the vile sorcerer gave one last moan of agony, and his body crumbled to dust that blew off the stage and into the abyss below.

But was it really over?


	14. This is How a Heart Breaks

**This is How a Heart Breaks**

It was some time after Nephorius's destruction that the dust of battle lifted. When it did, it found the twelve surviving SSBM fighters all exhausted, many of them bearing the marks of battle: bruises, burns, and scrapes; torn clothes and scuffed armor.

"At last," panted Fox. "It's finally over…no more Smashers can die at his hands…"

The looks with which many of his fellow fighters heard this utterance were bleak. None could take any relief from having defeated Nephorius; they thought of only the friends they had lost.

"But is it really over?" asked Mario. Luigi merely looked at his brother with a look of pain, the traces of tears streaking his face like they had done Mario's on the morning of the fateful dream.

"Mario's right," sighed Marth in despair. "We've all lost fellow Smashers at Nephorius's hands…but what have we won by defeating him?"

Samus tapped a foot. "Nothing, it would seem; apparently Mewtwo's revival spell didn't work," she answered gravely, the usual derisiveness of tone absent from her voice.

"And to think—I had the heart to hope—it would work…" Ness could barely mange to say before being overcome with sobbing much as he did when he and his three best friends had been recaptured on the outskirts of Port Town.

"_Pika pi…_" muttered Pikachu, blinking back tears. Kirby sighed something inarticulate in response.

Watching Ness try vainly to repress his sobs and sway to and fro as if he would soon fall down upon being overcome completely, Captain Falcon remained silent. In truth, he was now thinking again of everyone who had lost fellow Smashers and had been broken-hearted: Mario (and probably Luigi soon after) had been overcome with grief upon receiving news of Princess Peach's death; so had Princess Zelda, who had been the last person to speak to the Ice Climbers before their drowning and who had broken Link's heart when she herself died. Fox had lost Falco; Marth had lost Roy. Pikachu had lost Pichu and Jigglypuff, and probably felt some grief over Mewtwo's sacrifice, which was apparently in vain, for Ness was overcome with crying and none had been revived. As Bowser and Ganondorf were villains, none lamented their deaths—and probably because he was a psychic, Ness alone felt the loss of Mr. Game & Watch.

_Poor Ness,_ Falcon thought, _he felt the loss of everyone who died, and then some because he knew not only did Peach die for him, but I risked my life to rescue him and his friends—which must be hard on anyone, especially a child—_

"Buck up, Ness, there's no point in crying about it now," admonished Link in a last-ditch attempt to retain the strength not to shed tears, and to restore that same strength to other fellow Smashers.

Hearing these words addressed to the weeping psychic boy, the usually unshakably calm F-Zero pilot lost control. "FOR PITY'S SAKE, LINK, LET THE BOY HAVE HIS TEARS—IT'S OBVIOUS HE'S SUFFERING A BROKEN HEART!" shouted a voice that Captain Falcon barely recognized as his own.

Even Samus was shocked at this sudden bout of shouting; Fox forgot a few more tears that he shed for Falco, and Mario and Luigi looked up from their futile attempts to comfort each other.

When Link could not respond for shock, Captain Falcon strode over to where Ness stood unsteadily, just as surprised as everyone else who witnessed the shouting. "I'm sorry, Ness," apologized Falcon in a low, shaken tone of voice as he drew Ness close to him, "I'm sorry."

But Falcon's embrace, far from comforting the boy, had the opposite effect: drawn close as if into his own father's arms Ness abandoned himself, his sobs frequently punctuated by sharper outcries, his tears flowing unheeded into the spandex of Falcon's racing suit—such grief as could only come from a broken-hearted child.

It was torture for the good captain to see Ness cry like this, as it reminded him forcibly of having brought Princess Peach's dead body into the Intergalactic Travelers' Center to bear news of the princess's death to Mario, Link, and Princess Zelda. Ness was sobbing as uncontrollably now as Mario had on that occasion—and while Falcon himself shed no tears then, he was quite unable to reproach those who did.

To think that the voice of the princess who vehemently asserted that, _"The heart of a bounty hunter is unbreakable,"_ was the very same voice that pleaded with the accompaniment of a feeble handclasp, _"Get Ness and his friends safely home…tell—tell Mario I love him…"_ just before the delicate hand that clasped his went limp—after she had been the one to spare Falcon from the jaws of death in the Wormhole Crisis…to know that he owed his life to Princess Peach and was unable to save hers in return…

For once in nobody-knew-how-long, Falcon realized that the princess's death and the resulting fallout that fateful evening had broken his heart—and he hadn't even realized that his own heart was broken. He could not have admitted it, even to himself, after what Peach had said about bounty hunters being too tough to be heartbroken…being a bounty hunter by profession Falcon had stopped listening to his heart long ago. He had always prided himself on being able to overcome any challenge, to take anything in stride, without any groveling over perceived defeat. Perhaps that was why, seeing that sort of behavior in both himself and Samus Aran, Peach believed that a bounty hunter's heart could not be broken.

But at last Captain Falcon's heart was broken, as evidenced by his breathing that remained heavy as Ness cried…and by a single tear that finally slipped down his weatherbeaten cheek.

_A/N: "This is How a Heart Breaks" is actually the title of a Rob Thomas song (doubt if the name rings a bell, but oh well). I was thinking, how marvelous that would be for the title of a chapter in which a tough Smasher suffers a broken heart...but have I broken the character of anyone involved?_


	15. Revival

**Revival**

Suddenly the twelve grieving Smashers found that the bleakness surrounding their Final Destination stage was fast dissipating into a wash of blue light that made them forget their grief. And their hopeful feelings were not without foundation: from high above descended the catlike psychic Pokémon named Mewtwo.

"I did tell you all, in the course of events before the final battle with the villain Nephorius, that I had gone to the netherworld to bring back the fighters lost," remarked Mewtwo thoughtfully. "You will find soon enough that I remain true to my word."

Marth gasped in surprise and joy as he looked to find Roy's body stirring with life again. Roy slowly stood up and took hold of his Sword of Seals, uprooting it from the stage floor. Sheathing the sword, the Phaeraean swordsman smiled briefly as he acknowledged, "It's certainly a fitting end, that Nephorius should die upon the Sword of Seals as every surviving fellow fighter in this arena wields it."

"Hey, it's not fair that the rest of us didn't have a way of getting revenge on the killer," complained Ganondorf upon entrance. Bowser growled in agreement. Mario and Link, as well as several others, merely gave these two miscreants skeptical looks.

Out the corner of one eye, Pikachu saw Pichu and Jigglypuff rush joyfully toward it. "_Pika pikachu! Pika!_" cried out the yellow Pokémon, elated to see its friends again.

From one corner of the stage came a loud beeping and several Smashers turned in the direction of the beeping to see Mr. Game & Watch waving a flag, flanked on one side by the two Ice Climbers. Yoshi jumped for joy to see Popo and Nana again, and they were just as glad to see him.

"Hey, Fox. Did you miss me?" was Falco Lombardi's greeting. "Anyways, I've got to thank you for beating the creep and bringing everyone back."

"Let's be fair, Falco—I only had a small part in it. It was really Mewtwo who gave us all a way to revive those who died—and we all have you to thank, too. You were the one who discovered what we needed in the first place," praised Fox, embracing Falco like a brother.

Princesses Zelda and Peach, meanwhile, ran delightedly into the arms of the men they loved, unable to keep back their tears of joy.

"Oh, Link—I thought I'd never see you again!" gushed Zelda.

Peach's joy at seeing Mario again, however, was beyond words. She and Mario hugged each other so tightly, for such a long time, that it would have taken a crowbar to pry them apart. Not that anyone would have tried to do so, not even Bowser or Ganondorf.

"We can all do what celebrating we might, fellow Smashers, but now is not the time," Mewtwo interrupted the reveling. "Now there are explanations to be given."


	16. Confessions, Explanations, Understanding

**Confessions, Explanations, and Understanding**

"Yes, I would imagine that a lot of things need to be explained regarding the whole ordeal," Samus thoughtfully acknowledged to Mewtwo's words. "How, for example, this Nephorius villain chose the victims who would die…"

"Indeed," replied Mewtwo. "We shall come to it in due course, but first: Mario, am I correct in saying that you had awakened one morning from a dream that contained a fading star that led you to a fountain of tears with a bird perched on the edge and a shattered sword lying in the bottom?"

Mario silently nodded—and then he burst out: "I get it now! The fading star represented Peach's last moments—the broken sword was there because she was beaten in a fight—the fountain of tears was there because I wasn't the only one who cried about losing her…"

"So that's why I found the pumpkin with the Bond of Salvation symbol broken up," realized Ness aloud with a sigh of despair. "It meant that Peach, because she was the first to save a life in the Wormhole Crisis, would die trying to rescue me—and she did…I thought it meant Fox would be the first of us to die, and he survived…"

Link repeated the revival poem as if trying to put two and two together. "Zelda, wasn't it when you recalled your last conversation with Popo and Nana that you tried to say they wouldn't understand something? You faltered, and that's when you confessed to having argued with Peach—and then Nephorius appeared! But why did he kill you when you told me about an argument…" Link broke off.

"He didn't want you to know about the matter on which Peach and I argued," answered Zelda ruefully. When Popo and Nana asked why they wouldn't have understood, Zelda continued, "It's because the revival depended on Peach being wrong…"

Marth turned to Peach. "The poem mentioned that you were wrong about something, Princess Peach, and that a single tear would prove you wrong—but what mistake could you have made, that all it would take was one tear to prove you wrong and revive everyone that died?" he questioned. "And what of an argument with Princess Zelda—it's clear that she was not merely regretting that her last words to you were spoken in anger."

"No, Marth, Peach and I were not angry with each other the day we argued—we merely found ourselves in a disagreement over a matter of the heart…" Zelda faltered, looking at Peach.

At Zelda's words, all eyes turned to Peach. The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom looked fearful at everyone staring her down as if dreadfully shocked that she was capable of embroiling her friend in a heated argument.

Ness cautiously approached Peach. "W-what was it you said about someone's heart that had to be wrong?" he asked at last.

Peach glanced around at several of her fellow Smashers—Mewtwo, Fox, Marth, Roy, Link, Kirby, Mario, Mr. Game & Watch, and Popo and Nana—as she took a deep breath, bracing herself for the worst. But she could not remain silent any longer—at length she finally confessed: "When I argued with Zelda, I believed—and thusly I asserted—in exactly the same words that I used then…"—looking at Zelda, unable to glance at anyone else—"that the heart of a bounty hunter is unbreakable."

With the last word of this statement out of her mouth, Peach instantly clamped that organ shut and looked away into the oblivion, fearful lest she break down crying in front of the entire gathering of Smashers.

Some of the Smashers met Peach's confession with confused looks, glancing from her to Samus Aran and back again, then to Zelda—until Link covered up a startled gasp of realization as he looked from Ness to Captain Falcon, the latter still bearing the trace of the single tear that had rolled down his cheek: the one thing that needed to be in order for the revival to take place.

"It all makes sense now," said Link with a shuddering breath. "The 'single tear' needed to revive everyone was just one tear of heartbreak—but a bounty hunter had to be the one to let it fall, to prove Peach wrong about what she said, and…" Link faltered, glancing down at Ness before suddenly bursting out to all of his fellow Smashers, "and that's why Captain Falcon, of all people, yelled at me for telling Ness to stop crying! It all makes sense now! He had to recognize that Ness was broken-hearted—we all were! How such a hard heart could break when we had finally defeated Nephorius—there was no other way…I was a fool not to realize it earlier…"

Peach shook her head despairingly. "If anyone's to blame here, I am," said she in a grave tone. "If I hadn't argued—if I hadn't tried to rescue Ness—I wouldn't have broken so many hearts, for they that cannot break hearts in their lives invariably break countless hearts in their deaths…and I…" But she couldn't continue. It seemed no apologies could do justice to Peach's regret.

Captain Falcon, however, would not bear to hear this. Crossing the Final Destination stage in barely three strides, he seized hold of Peach by both shoulders and pulled her around to face him. "On the contrary, Princess Peach, you were an honor to your fellow Smashers the day you ventured out to rescue Ness and his _Earthbound_ friends," Falcon vehemently declared. "When those children needed help, you immediately rushed to be there for them—and I know now that it's because you cared. From what I found out about the first rescue attempt, you did some things that would out-clever a lot of the Nintendo universe's worst villains…"

"In fact, I think the only reason you failed was precisely because Nephorius was the villain who tried to take you out of the picture," interrupted Mario in agreement.

"And when Black Shadow's soldiers and the Red Canyon bandits chased you and the kids to Port Town, you didn't give up; you did everything in your power to resist the miscreants—few men and even fewer women can rightly say they've had the courage to challenge Black Shadow, and even he must have actually been Nephorius in disguise," Falcon continued. "Still, even when you realized you were too badly hurt to continue fighting, you kept looking for an N-gate. You never gave up on Ness and his friends; that took determination—and you didn't give up on Mario, either. You had faith enough in _me_ that you asked me to deliver your last I-love-you to Mario in your last breath…You acted as a true Smasher should when fellow Smashers need help…" But Falcon, still in pain over the ordeal, faltered.

Peach made to step slightly away from Falcon and was somewhat surprised at with what little effort he released her. "You couldn't save my life that evening after I had saved yours in the Wormhole Crisis—is that what broke your heart?" she asked quietly, looking down when the words were out of her mouth and stepping closer to Mario, who then put one protective arm around Peach's waist.

"It isn't just you, Falcon, that'd be tragic enough to break anybody's heart," were the words with which Princess Zelda offered consolation. "I'm kind of surprised you didn't shed a tear or two in the ITC when you had to tell us that Peach was dead."

"Maybe he didn't let his feelings show then because he knew Ness and his friends were still in danger, and he had to be strong for them," Link offered.

Falcon nodded. "That and I overheard the princesses arguing not long before that awful battle," he admitted. "Even if I had realized just how broken my heart was in the aftermath of Princess Peach's death, I could never have admitted it until now—I had taken to heart her statement that a bounty hunter's heart can't be broken. I had to prove her right by showing an unbreakable heart—or so I thought—she had given me, as a bounty hunter, some credit for being strong; I didn't want to dishonor her by being weak and lamenting like so many others."

"Even I don't know whether I said 'the heart of a bounty hunter is unbreakable' in praise or in blame," replied Peach miserably.

"You could not have foreseen your own death, nor known that Captain Falcon would be the fellow Smasher of yours unfortunate enough to watch you die," Mewtwo acknowledged to Peach, "nor even had any idea that a simple quarrel could have had the impact that it did on everyone."

"And well you _should_ think a bounty hunter's heart is so hard that it can't be broken," added Falcon bitterly. "If Samus and I are any example, until today you only _had_ enough experience dealing with bounty hunters to know that we're a hard-hearted lot—our line of work demands it; we have to keep others from knowing that it's possible to wound us emotionally, if we can avoid it. After Princess Zelda's death at the hands of Nephorius, I was the only Smasher who knew any more than the fact that an argument between the princesses took place—but for precisely that reason, to guard my heart and preserve my dignity, I remained silent about it. It was only when I recognized Ness's tears for the broken heart that caused them, and shouted at Link for telling Ness not to cry, that I realized just how broken my own heart was."

Roy drew a deep breath as he took in Falcon's words. "So the only reason why it had to be you who let fall a single tear, instead of Samus, was because none of the events leading to Nephorius's appearance and the battle had affected her like they did to you?"

"Indeed," Falcon forced himself to say. "Samus never owed her life to any of her fellow Smashers, let alone found herself unable to save the life of the dying fellow Smasher she owed her life to."

"Maybe that's why Nephorius chose to dispatch Princess Peach first when he started killing some of us," Samus contemplated aloud. "He wanted to break the hearts of the few who survived his covert attempts to kill us before he revealed himself to the rest, and the loss of Peach, given previous events as well as the friendship of those who care for her, would break more hearts than any other loss."

Fox drew himself up determinedly, replying, "But I think Nephorius forgot one important point: they that try to destroy Smashers unify the survivors in an instant." Cheers ensued for this remark, and when they subsided, Fox went on, "We all worked together to defeat Nephorius and restore everything lost, and even though we all suffered to some degree, we came out on top.

"Let no-one ever try to beat us again!" subjoined Mario.


End file.
